Beaver Forest

The forests around the Peace River belong to the traditional territory of the Dane-zaa, an Athabaskan-speaking First Nations people whose name is often translated as “Those who live among the beaver.” English speakers historically called them the Beaver, a translation of a name used by neighboring peoples. Their homeland reaches across parts of Alberta and British Columbia, and the woods, rivers and open patches of the upper Peace region make up the wider setting for seasonal hunting and travel. This landscape has a deep human history. Archaeological work at Charlie Lake Cave, north of Fort St John, shows continuous occupation for about 10,500 years. Before the nineteenth century, Dane-zaa territory also extended toward the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers and Lake Athabasca. In the late eighteenth century, European-Canadians opened the Peace region to the fur trade; Alexander Mackenzie established Rocky Mountain Fort at the mouth of the Moberly River in 1794. Dane-zaa oral history describes the Peace River as a boundary after a conflict with the Cree, with meetings, trade and ceremonies taking place across it. The forest history is therefore a record of long Indigenous territory and later fur-trading routes.